Amos 5:21
21 I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.
God uses the strongest of terms to describe the sacrifices Israel was making to him in the days of Amos. He hates them, yes the God who is love, hates. God's love is righteous love, and therefore it hates every false thing. That's what their sacrifices and services and ceremonies to the LORD were, false. They lived in open sin, served other gods, their lives could not be told apart from the nations around them, and then they would come and offer sacrifice or do some religious service once in a while and this hypocrisy made God utterly sick. "The Sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord" [Pro 15:8]. We still have this sort of religiosity in our day as well, when a man or woman comes to church a few times in the month, or does some good deed here or there and the rest of their days are spent in drunkenness, adultery, idolatry, and your life can't be told apart from the world around you. If that describes your life then God hates your hypocrisy, he is utterly sick of your lukewarmness, he despises your good works that are filthy rags. Your service to him is false and he hates and despises it.
Then he says "I will not smell in you solemn assemblies." Many times offerings were referred to as a "Sweet smelling savour unto the LORD." The Lord "Smelled" Noah's offering and vowed never again to curse the earth with water [Gen 8]. The Lamb offered unto the Lord in Leviticus was a sweet savor to the Lord [Lev 1]. The Lord Jesus's life was a "Sweet smelling savor" and God vowed never to curse anyone who is in Christ [Eph 5]. God would see these offerings and if they came from a heart of repentance and faith he would have honor unto them and the judgment stored up unto those individuals for their unrighteousness would be forgiven. Yet false repentance and false faith he despises, the confession of an unrepentant man or woman he utterly despises, many will say "Lord, Lord" but he will say to them "Depart from me I never knew you." A hypocritical service to the Lord has never been the fruit of genuine faith, but the evidence of a false conversion, a fake Christian, a wolf in sheep's clothing.
Let me leave you with a question today, are you a false Christian? I wouldn't dare breed doubt in the heart of God's children but I will urge you to "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your ownselves, Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?[2 Cor 13:5] Has there ever been any real change in your life? Or are you still the same old man you've always been? If you are not in Christ, been born again, then all that you could ever do for him he will hate and despise, "All our righteousnesses are filthy rags." He will not smell your solemn assemblies." There is one sacrifice that can make you clean today, and it is not one that you can make, but one that was made for you 2,000 years ago. The perfect spotless sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Trust in him today and become one of the "Beloved." The word beloved was used exclusively for referring to Jesus in the Gospel, "This is my Beloved son in whom I am well pleased." However after Calvary, in the book of Acts and the Epistles, it becomes a common title for the brothers, and sisters in Christ, because they are in the beloved they are beloved. Are you in the beloved Christ? Or are you still a hypocrite? Come to Christ today!
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